Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas-- Calvin Coolidge

Meanwhile here are some garden progresses. Firstly my Thyme! Oh, the herb is so gracious. Each time I prune it, the little shrub grows back so quickly. The plant smells wonderful and I just love how the foliage drape down the edges of the pot. But soon it will be time for a cut again.

My variegated Gardenia produces inconspicuous flower buds so when I spotted one flower recently, I was surprised by its sudden appearance. Anyway, I love the smell and its white petals. It's such a charming flower!

Btw, giving gardenia flowers to someone means telling the person that "You are lovely!" Have you given one to someone before? ;-)

There is nothing as satisfying as seeing the bromeliads in my garden blooming and glowing. I am so glad to see a few of them blooming at the same time. The wait is over, yay!

Not sure if this is the norm... the flower stalks of my Billbergia pyramidalis grew towards the direction where there is greater sunlight. The bright orangy-red of the flower heads were outstanding. They look like torches.

Glad I spotted the flower of my Kaempferia pulchra plant. Good thing it was facing the doorway, else I would have missed it. Saw it as I was walking out to the garden one morning. This one is unusually 'shy'... hiding inbetween the leaves ;-)

Actually the shrub has not been flowering for some time. A little 'pampering' goes a long way. After a few times of feeding, the shrub is now flowering more frequently. Still, just a bloom at a time. Here is the flower that blossomed after the 'shy' one...

I spent a few days shopping for (and buying!) plants last week, which was very therapeutic :-) Seeing the many gorgeous plants, I was so tempted to bring home all of them!! Alas, I stuck to my old favourites.

I spotted a group of Gloxinias on a rack at one nursery and quickly picked up two -- one red and one blue with white edges up. And on a nearby rack I found some African Violets that were just too hard to resist. They look absolutely lovely when put together :-)

Meanwhile, my old red with white edges Gloxinia was (and is!) blooming happily in the garden. The blooms stayed for a longer period of time due to the wet weather and cooler temperature. Good thing the mealybugs that have infested the shrub didn't kill it, haha...

Brilliant blooms are attractive even when they are small in size. Past few weeks have been really great for certain plants. Though there were storms and even thunders, my Monocostus uniflorus benefited from the wet weather.

The plant was blooming almost non-stop though the blooms were emerging one-by-one. The cooler temperature has certainly brought much comfort for this petite spiral ginger :-)

Where flowers bloom, so does hope -- Lady Bird JohnsonThe Dendrobium orchid flower buds blossomed one by one and they are two sprays of them now. Pale pink so sweet. I like! But I just wish they are more orchids.

The other orchid that is in bloom is the Phalaenopsis bellina, called The Beautiful Orchid. The flower also blossomed one by one.

One morning, I woke up earlier than usual and as I was walking towards the watering can, I noticed a dragonfly perched on my orchid, resting on the spray of flower buds. Never moved a bit and for a long time. It was not even disturbed by my presence as I (and my camera!) was so near the insect! Still sound asleep, my dear friend?

A friend who visited my garden had asked if I sell plants. This time round, I was asked another rather peculiar question. She asked if the blooms on my dwarf Azalea in pic below are plastic flowers. Oh, no way! Btw, there is another white one blooming in the garden as well (see the pic after Gloxinia below), I told her.The other plant which caught my attention is the Euphorbia 'Breathless Blush' bush that is growing at the edge of my porch. Its little white blooms looked rather outstanding in the morning with just a little light. Still, I wished it could flower prolifically... The orange Hibiscus flowers were partly opened... looks like yawning and about to wake up, hehe...And later in the afternoon, the bloom was opened fully....At another part of the garden, my yellow Hibiscus has bounced back with more leaves after a prune few weeks ago. I spotted a flower too! I took the pic below in the afternoon when the sky was rather cloudy. No harsh afternoon sunlight so the yellow is very close to the actual colour of the flower :-DLast month, I repotted three Gloxinias into a little long trough. The leaves are now growing vigorously and I noticed that there are already flower buds growing out from one of the shrubs. Oh yeah! Flowers about to blossom soon!

But not so for my Thyme (foreground of pic below). This wonderful aromatic shrub has never flower before :-( Btw, the white Azalea I mentioned earlier is at the background of pic below...And last but not least, is my Plumbago White. Lovely...Life is like a mirror. It will smile at you if you smile at it :-)

The sun has been hiding behind the clouds but the roses including Desert Rose (Adenium obesum) made their appearance felt. My One-Day Yellow Desert Rose produces blooms that have tinges of red on its yellow petals these days. Though pale in colour, they cheer me up every time they appear :D

My Rosa 'Othello' rose scaled so high up till I could see the flower. Also from the pic you could see that its leaves have been chewed. The leaves are sweet? Or maybe the bug was really hungry, haha...

For many months now, the Oxalis regnelli 'Atropurpurea' bulbs seemed like they are all rotted or wilted. They didn't! Instead, the bulbs sent out more blooms than leaves :-)

I moved all my potted plants so much when I was re-organising the garden. I am sure I had damaged some foliage and even flower buds along the way. But for this hoya, Hoya Pubicalyx, I was surprised to see the buds blossomed :-)

What is ahead, Malaysia? I thought one plane crash was bad enough. We had two!! No more, please!!!Perhaps it is time to just forget about the sorrows for while now that our dear country is turning 57 on 31 August. As we celebrate our Merdeka (Independence) Day, I have something to make you happy :-)

The pictures that I have included in this post are snapshots of my garden and plants this week. In bloom below is my Green Ice Crossandra (Crossandra infundibuliformis 'Shamrock'). I thought of pruning it yesterday, good thing I didn't!

Green Ice Crossandra

It is always not easy to keep up with blogging a lot of time. But because I know there will be always readers, followers and sometimes newbies on the blog, I am motivated to keep writing/posting. Thank you :)

Acerola (Malpighia glabra) seedling is reacting a little strange in my garden. The plant seems to take its own sweet time to grow. While I like slow-growers, this one proves to test my patience. Never knew that it would grow so, so slow. The mother plant though (which I have been keeping as a bonsai) does grow faster than this seedling. Hmm... perhaps a little more fertiliser?

Little lemon tree is cute and pretty. Love watching it grow. After it has grown its true leaves, I can literally see it growing bigger each day. But hope it will not outgrown the little pot too fast. Due to the haze and hot weather, I resorted to garden more at my kitchen window for more pleasure. My recent purchase is a Strawberry Saxifraga (Saxifraga stolonifera). I have grown this plant for a few times before already. Each time it was without success and still this time another failure... it seems to be dying slowly :( Good thing it was not that expensive and I used its plantlets for my terrarium :-)Spot an Azalea bloom? Well, I think that Agave makes a better flower, haha... This is probably why we so love succulents. They are pretty enough even without any blooms.Turmeric (Curcuma longa) grows rather fast, I mean its roots... I could either harvest some of its roots or re-pot it into a bigger pot. Well, I decided to just repot it...A weed popped up suddenly after a plant died in this same pot. Not sure what's the ID but it does look like little palm leaves. Don't you think so? But, errr... I do not wish for another palm... A flower from my mini hot pepper (Capsicum frutescens)... wow! I am looking forward to another good harvest, yay!I wish there will rain again soon. It's getting pretty hot. The two times it rained was last week and that's not enough!Nonetheless, have a wonderful day!

It has been really hot and dry for the past weeks! Watering plants is one important task that I cannot not do! Ahhh... the joy of gardening? Well it is! I was really pleased to see many of my plants faring alright.

As I was walking out towards the gate I was so glad to see an open rose-like flower from my Jasmine sambac 'Grand Duke of Tuscany'. Its heavy scent was just so refreshing and its beautiful white petals painted a calming picture to behold. Thank you pretty little thing ;-)

Also these puffy seed-heads from a mystery weed make the place looks seemingly airy don't you think so?

There are not many plants in my garden that is blooming. Most surprising are the usuals like hibiscus plants... none of them are flowering. The obvious ones are the ones in white.

The Jasmine sambac 'Grand Duke of Tuscany' double blooms have finally opened. Both blooms didn't open simultaneously but one after another. They are precious nevertheless, as the plant was a gift from my neighbour's mum.

Out of the several plants I received from her, this one proves to be most heat tolerant. The other was the double hibiscus which however wilted few months ago due to the prolong rain.

At another side is my white dwarf Azalea. The little shrub has four flowers on it which looks kind of strange as all four are at one side of the shrub. Also these blooms last so much longer than the Jasmine although their petals are thinner.

There is not much to update from the garden this week. Just that I am so proud of my Euphorbia bracteata (Synonym: Pedilanthus bracteatus) shrub. The plant, once short and had only one stem has recently grown more stems, leaves and flowers! The most fascinating part about this plant is of course, is its bird-like blooms...

The green bird-like blooms that are enclosed within the reddish-pink bracts will turn yellow as they age.

There is always a time for a Bromeliad to shine and this time it's Billbergia pyramidalis's turn to take centre stage :-) I noticed the bloom even when it peeped out from the leaves. You just can't miss!

The outstanding bloom looked extremely red against the bright green leaves. No wonder the plant is commonly known as Flaming Torch.

As the inflorescence develops, its many three-petaled flowers with purple tips open to reveal a blueish-purple stigma and yellow stamens.

If I am a plant, I probably would have caught a cold by now. The mornings are sunny but in the afternoons, the sky just darkens and heavy downpours follow. This is how the weather has been going these days in Petaling Jaya - chaotic!

Save for the plants that are in the porch, I have not been watering them for days already. Nevertheless, my Lemon Ginger (Monocostus uniflorus) that flowers intermittently continues to do so. I am so delighted :-)

Also when this Siam Tulip bloom (Curcuma alismatifolia) shows up, it still looks really good in spite of the dark sky and constant drizzle. The colour was as bright as usual and the real flowers blossomed one by one, wonderfully!

We must cultivate our own garden. When a man was put into the garden of Eden, he was put there so that he should work, which means man was not born to rest. -- Voltaire When it is bright and clear, the rain came pouring. Sometimes in the night also. Regardless, it is also an opportunity to sow seeds and propagate plants in the open :-D No need to check if they need some shelter or water.

The pic below shows a pot of English Lavender (botanical name: Lavandula augustifolia). After flowering the plant just wilted. It wilted even quicker during rainy days.

Fortunately plants like Azalea is tough enough and don't mind the rain at all. The bloom is sweet as a candy :-)

No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden -- Thomas Jefferson

While the gardener is passionate about growing a lush garden with healthy plants, there are still plenty to learn about plants and their needs especially when circumstances changed. While the Money Plant (Epipremnum aureum) and Satin Pothos (Scindapsus pictus 'Argyraeus') were doing really well with their 'feet' in a pot of water, the rest of my plants that I have placed inside were 'stressed'.

My terrarium was not given enough attention when I just left this one near the window. The dry and hot spell we had a few weeks ago kind of burnt the plants. The fern inside the terrarium was 'cooked' hence discarded. I had also pruned the Bubble Plants and used the stems to propagate new plants...

Anyone seen the new Captain America movie? Comic superhero comes to life on-screen... I thoroughly enjoyed the show and wish he was real in the light of the rising crime rate ;-)In conjunction with Earth Day month, I would like to dedicate this post for those who care for Mother Earth. Anyone heard of Garbage Enzyme? It has been promoted a long time ago by the inventor, Dr Rosukon Poompanyong. She has been involved in enzyme research for more than 30 years and is a pioneering farmer in organic movement and the founder of the Organic Agriculture Association in Thailand. The benefits of Garbage Enzyme are countless. In the garden, the enzyme can be a natural pesticide, soil improver as well as an organic fertiliser. It converse ammonia to nitrate, a nutrient that would help boost fruit and vegetable quality and increase agriculture output.

Although the weather is still hot, the few heavy rains did brought a little respite to the long dry spell we had earlier. The plants in my garden perked up more after the rain.

One night I smelt wonderful fragrance from my Solandra longiflora vine. The next morning, I noticed it collected a little water inside the pale yellow flower... saving some water for later use? :)

My dwarf pink Ixora is flowering more blooms than usual. I don't know which scenario brought out the flowers - was it the heat from the dry spell or the rain? I think plants can flower more whenever they are stressed up, either shocked by drought or too much water. What do you think?

I have been staying indoor most of the time due to the hot weather but my plants are not. By late afternoon, I can almost hear them 'screaming' for water!

The pic below shows my Holmskiodia sanguinea (common name: Chinese Hat Plant), Adenium obesum (Desert Rose) and Bougainvillea 'Apple Blossom'. The Chinese Hat blooms on the left have dried with very few green leaves on the vine leaving the Desert Roses (one in white with pink edges and another in yellow) shouting for attention.

While the dry spell persists, I have been following the news closely on the ill-fated flight MH370 that went missing since Saturday, the incident is just beyond comprehension. I pray that all will be with their loved ones soon.

I was feeling under the weather for two weeks. The flu is still bugging me and the unusual dry spell is not ending any sooner. To make matters worse the sky seems blocked as the haze is back!

Though the plants in the garden have to thrive harder for their leaves and flowers to flourish, some are doing ok. Here are some of my favourites...

Last week, many blooms emerged from my bougainvillea. They seems more pink than usual, making the shrub looks so bright and cheerful. However I would have loved it more if the shape of the top was rounder. Also I think a cat has climbed on it earlier. A branch seems to be bending down to the pot below and the bougainvillea looks a bit distorted...

Here are some of my kalanchoes. On the left in the pic below is the Kalanchoe orgyalis. Love the colour! Next to it (on the right) is Kalanchoe tomentosa. I really like its hairy texture ;-)

My hippeastrum sent out its last stalk of flowers last week. It took a long while this time round for the flower stalk to appear and leaves to flourish after the 'forcing process' earlier.

It was amazing to see how well the blooms tolerated the heat. It was so hot during Chinese New Year! Another plant that has done well is my Holmskioldia sanguinea vine. It is flowering in profusion! Oh, I am so glad :-)

Orange is the prominent colour in my garden for the week when my orange Hibiscus rosa-sinensis sends out a flower or two on different days. The colour is more dominant when the vine, Chinese hat plant (Holmskioldia sanguinea) next to it is blooming at the same time.

In the late afternoon or when the sky is cloudy, the little hat-shaped blooms are still very obvious. Perhaps that is why the yellow-bellied sunbirds like to visit and often perch on the vine.

I am glad to have completed a few things that I have been procrastinating. I guess I am still in holiday mood, hehe... Anyway, I am super happy now!!Does the pic below look unreal? It is real! I can't believe I could actually grow African violet. The little plant has been doing so well. I have really enjoyed watching the dainty blooms opening and how the stalks of flowers actually flourish and buds blossom.

Happy New Year 2014! May this year brings you lots of happiness and many gardening successes :-DI had a good yearend holiday and I hope you have had a good one too. Just a day before the first day of New Year 2014, my African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha), a flower blossomed...So dainty, cute and delightful... a violet African violet!

Few months back when I brought the African violet home, the plant had more flowers blossoming at the same time. The petals however were white with violet edges...

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Some of you have left messages enquiring about plants featured on my blog. Many of these are actually not easily available in Malaysia. Perhaps that's why you were asking! Anyway drop me an email at mygreenfinder[at]hotmail.com :)